If you’ve ever drooled over those stunning snaps of a clear night sky peppered with stars, you’d probably be thrilled to know that you can get those photos, too. All you need to do is to plan a shoot on a cloudless night, find a nice spot to camp away from the city lights, equip your camera with a wide angle lens (a 24mm f/1.4 will do great), a tripod, a cable release, energy to pull an all-nighter (you’ll want to experiment), and watch this astrophotography primer.
For years now, I’ve never been a fan of LED strobes or flashes simply because they’re just not powerful, but a new option called the PHOTONICZ ONE is promising to put that problem to rest. But it’s also claiming that it can go a step beyond. Besides offering 2,500 watt seconds of power, it’s claiming to offer a flash duration of 1/50,000 at 30 frames per second at full power. Then there’s the TTL options for Canon, Nikon, Sony, Pentax, Fujifilm, Panasonic and a Olympus. But even then, what’s even more astounding is that they’re offering weather sealing and a full color Touch LED screen panel.
If you’re looking for a new film to try — perhaps something rare, like a handmade black and white film — we have some interesting news for you. Foqus, an analogue photo store and photolab based in St. Petersburg, Russia, is carrying a handmade black and white film called Type-D. According to their blog post, this 35mm film was introduced in 2016 by a group of film photography fans in Russia, making it possible for their fellow analogue lovers to enjoy more fresh black and white films. And so we’re telling you all about it because we’re positive that most readers won’t know what it is.
Mint Camera has been the creator of a whole lot of fantastic cameras over the past few years, and now they’re launching their flagship–the Mint Camera SLR670-S Classic! This new flagship camera is a whole lot like the other SLR-670 cameras in that they can use the Mint Time Machine to get manual control over the shutter speeds, the flash attachment, and use Impossible Project film. But the new really cool thing about the Mint Camera SLR670-S Classic is that it takes both ISO 100 and ISO 600 film formats. Many of the more modern cameras could only do one or the other, but this one can do both all with the same body.
Hey analog world, we’ve got some really cool new announcements in the form of the new Lomography Lomo’Instant Square camera. The first to the table was the Fujifilm Instax Square SQ10; which in my opinion is little more than just an Instax Square printer. But this new camera is putting the light directly onto the film plane and not a digital sensor of any sort–unlike the Fujifilm camera. Using a 95mm f10 lens, the Lomography Lomo’Instant Square has programmed automatic exposures with compensation being offered. Plus there is a bulb mode, flash, infrared shutter release built into the lens cap, and real glass in the lens. While a 95mm f10 lens may sound pretty slow, consider the fact that this is a 62mm x 62mm film plane–far larger than 35mm and 645. Plus, the viewfinder isn’t through the lens, instead it’s just more or less for framing.
In a move that is seemingly an attempt to confuse the more savvy photographers everywhere, Canon is introducing the Canon EOS M100. This camera replaces the Canon EOS M10–but if you know anything about Canon’s naming convention then you can assert that this camera line is moving into a lower end of their lineup. Something probably akin to the Canon EOS M5 will probably go into the 00 (two number) lineup with something big and beefy taking the single number lineup–hopefully.
Today, Canon is introducing a lineup of lenses that are surely doing something different from all the other options out there. The company is refreshing and introducing a number of new tilt-shift options–but these aren’t just any tilt-shift lenses. These lenses have macro focusing capabilities. We can say hello to a brand new Canon 50mm f2.8 L Macro, a 90mm f2.8 L Macro, and a 135mm f4 L Macro option. All of these lenses have tilt-shift and macro capabilities–and Canon is specific in saying that they’re true macro at 1:1. In addition to that, they all have 9 aperture blades. Even further, they’re all L lenses–but they obviously lack weather sealing as that’s very difficult to do otherwise.
The new Canon 85mm f1.4 L IS USM does not replace the Canon 85mm f1.2 L USM II–and to be honest I’m not exactly sure why not. It’s been a really, really long time since Canon announced a new 85mm lens but today we’re getting something that Canon says lives in between the 85mm f1.8 (which is complete crap by today’s standards) and their well loved 85mm f1.2 L USM II. In fact, Canon is saying that the newCanon 85mm f1.4 L IS USM is supposed to have better or equal resolution than the f1.2. Additionally, it has Four stops of IS according to CIPA standards, a high speed autofocus system, weather sealing, dust resistance and USM–so you’ll most likely get much quieter and faster focusing than the f1.2 variant.
Despite the risk of creating something overdone, many photographers and visual creatives continue to make double exposures part of their visual storytelling tools. The dreamy works by Egyptian photographer Hussam Eissa make perfect examples of why they seek to master it. With its origins tracing back to the days of film photography, double exposure simply involves exposing a frame of film twice, yet the creative applications it opens are only limited by one’s imagination. With results that are often ethereal, reflective, and moody, it continues to persist as one of today’s most popular photography techniques, whether traditional or digital.
Are you interested in shooting photojournalism or landscapes, maybe dabbling in street photography? If that is the case and you are doing any sort of research into the kind of lenses you should look into the chances are that you may have seen 24mm pop up quite a bit in your research. So, as we continue our look at various focal lengths and what makes them special today we have a look at the 24mm lens.